This invention is in the field of information and communications, and is more specifically directed to improved processes, circuits, devices, and systems for information and communication processing and protection against unauthorized communications, and processes of operating, protecting and making them. Without limitation, the background is further described in connection with communications processing and wireless communications.
Wireless communications, of many types, have gained increasing popularity in recent years. The mobile wireless (or “cellular”) telephone has become ubiquitous around the world. Mobile telephony has recently begun to communicate video and digital data, in addition to voice. Wireless devices, for communicating computer data over a wide area network, using mobile wireless telephone channels and techniques are also available.
Wireless data communications in wireless local area networks (WLAN), such as that operating according to the well-known IEEE 802.11 standard, have become especially popular in a wide range of installations, ranging from home networks to commercial establishments. Short-range wireless data communication according to the “Bluetooth” technology permits computer peripherals to communicate with a personal computer or workstation within the same room.
Improved security of retail and other business commercial transactions in electronic commerce and the security of communications wherever personal and/or commercial privacy is desirable. Security is important in both wireline and wireless communications. Added features and security add further processing tasks to the communications system. These potentially mean added software and hardware in systems where cost and power dissipation are already important concerns.
Improved processors, such as RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) processors and/or digital signal processing (DSP) chips and/or other integrated circuit devices are very useful in these systems and applications. Reducing the cost of manufacture, increasing the efficiency of executing more instructions per cycle, and protection from unauthorized communications without compromising performance are important goals in RISC processors, DSPs, integrated circuits generally and system-on-a-chip (SOC) design. These goals are important in wireline devices and in wireless handheld/mobile applications where small size is so important, to control the cost and the power consumed and deliver actual performance in the face of a mix of authorized and unauthorized traffic impinging on the application.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems are an example of one communications believed to hitherto have often been highly susceptible to various types of network intrusions such as Denial of Service (DoS) attacks.
A VoIP telecommunications device such as an IP (Internet Protocol) phone is a network device and is exposed to all types of network traffic. Like other network devices, an IP phone can be victimized by malformed frames or packet flood attacks, thereby leading to denial of service (DoS). Voice communications require consistent and reliable bandwidth that can be interrupted when DoS packets preempt or consume the available network bandwidth. This denial of service can not only have an adverse effect on voice quality of an ongoing call, but also render the phone unable to make or receive any further calls. A mechanism that can defend the IP phone from such events would be desirable and indeed can be expected to become increasingly necessary to ensure quality and reliability of voice services.
Among other problems, it would be highly desirable to solve problems of how to efficiently and economically resist denial of service and other attacks. These problems need to be solved with respect to instruction efficiency and operating frequency and low power dissipation in microprocessors, telecommunications apparatus and computer systems.